Pony Island, released by indie
developer and one man show Daniel Mullins Games, is one of a
multitude of games which can claim the overly awarded “Overwhelmingly
Positive” rating on Steam. Labeled OP, these games have a
ninty-five percent approval rating by Steam users (There's also a
minimum number of rating requirement). But unlike the average
reviewer, Steam uses a binary system, “Would you recommend this
game?”: yes or no. It's not surprising then that approximately
three hundred and fifty games, expansions, and soundtracks are OP.
This catalog includes Portal and Bastion, but also Iron
Snout, NEKOPARA
Vol. 2, and at number three, This
War of Mine - War Child Charity DLC(?).
Pony Island is a member of the
increasingly popular genre of the metagame: a game that knows it is a
game, that the player knows that it knows is a game, the game knows
that the player knows that it's a game. So when Pony Island pretends
to pretend (and intentionally fails) its a game about ponies its not
to be taken seriously. It pretends to be about pink ponies and
rainbows, but as the trailer succinctly states, “This
is not a game about ponies.” Instead it's about a cursed
arcade machine, its demonic inhabitants, and the quest to free the
damned souls within, while playing (mostly) as a pony/undead-monster
with beautiful/hideous fairy-wings/dragon-scales. Problem: the
player's avatar isn't even a pony, when it's supposed to be one.
It's very clearly a unicorn with a horn sticking out of its forehead.
Solution: the horn is useless, instead the pony learns to shoot
lasers out of its mouth.
Pony Island acquires its
gameplay mechanics from a few sources, and with a few updates,
constructs a Frankenstein-like monster, with the seams showing. The
mechanics include jumping over gates as a pony (while shooting
demonic faces/beautiful butterflies), simple programming to
manipulate the arcade console's code, a simplified space invaders, a
satanic version of the Settlers of Catan, and some word games
to outsmart the three demons. But while each mechanic is unique they
are simplified versions seen in other games. The pony sections,
which comprise the largest single component of gameplay are repeated,
but with only mild variations. And while the programming sections
vary a bit more, the diversity in their solutions is too minimal to
engage. The whole game feels as if mechanics, taken from other
games, were diluted instead of expanded, leaving even the two hours
seem stretched.
Instead, Pony Island tries to
carry the player to the finish on the back of the story. But the
poor creature doesn't have the strength for that either. In fact the
plot is damningly straightforward. Satan, Lucifer, the Devil, has
used an arcade cabinet to capture the souls of players. He alters
the game to defeat any player, no matter their skill. Oddly, he does
this through the mundanity of code, altering it instead of using
demonic magic. Meanwhile, one doomed soul has discovered a fault in
the program, he offers to aid you. As the player plays, weaknesses,
like cracks in a building, are opened by the players ally to directly
reprogram the machine and bypass the game. This conflict between two
personalities vying for the players attention is a common technique
for developing tension. And it's often combined with another
technique, the false
friend and untrusted but true ally.
The player first meets h0peles$0uL and
1U©iF#r after Pony
Island crashes, and the player gains access to the desktop.
These two handles greet the player in chat boxes, and compete for his
attention. H0peles$0uL claims to be trapped in the console, and
willing to help the player, while 1U©iF#r
demonstrates his power over the player by making him type, “Yes
Master”. The obvious enemy is 1U©iF#r,
the clear ally, h0peles$0uL. But is Pony Island that
straightforward? Yes. It rejects the tension and payoff available
through deception. There is no climactic reveal, no betrayal, only an
endless slog until Satan's defeat. In Pony Island the friend
is the friend, the Devil is the foe. While it couldn't be any other
way, it seems to have missed an opportunity in its transparency, for
never does the player believe any other outcome is possible.
Yet, though the overall arc of Pony
Island is predictable, and is beatable in two hours, it contains
a number of unique scenes, ideas, and tricks. The most prominent, as
detailed by other reviewers, occurs when confronting the third
demon, Baphomet. Pony Island accesses the Steam friends list
to mess with the player. Random friends send messages, beginning
innocently, yet questioningly with, “How is Pony Island? Looks like
it is for wimps,” and culminating with the obviously-not-them,
“GIVE LUCIFER YOUR SOUL!” (I paraphrase as the exact statements
escape my recollection, but the overall idea remains true). But
other parts of the game repeat themselves with a new coat of paint,
as the black and white aesthetic of pony jumping and console
programming is repeated with brightly colored pony jumping and
manipulating the flight paths of butterflies.
Upon completion of the game (and
victory over the demons that reside in the arcade console's innards),
your ally, a trapped soul, implores you to delete the game from your
hard-drive, freeing him forever. I was ready to comply. It's not
that Pony Island isn't an enjoyable experience, but that it emptied
its bag of tricks in the first hour. I suspect there is more, the
game hints of secrets and mysteries. There's tickets to collect, an
opportunity to discover the history of the machine, and some riddles
about Abu Al-Kindi, Theodore, and the Crusades. There's a lot to
unearth, all tied up with a nice Templar bow, but it didn't engage
me. Pony Island doesn't deserve a spot in the increasingly crowded
field of Overwhelmingly Positive games, yet when I have to award it a
thumps up or a thumps down, I'll be approximately the 5,152nd
person to propel it upward.
Pony Island, though not a stroll
through emerald glades under a golden sun, is worth the short ride
through demon invested territory that it offers.
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